It is the 21st of April, and there is fresh snow on the mountains surrounding Ulaanbaatar. In the last few weeks, we were happy to shed our heavier winter layers and my husband the human polar bear was down to wearing t-shirts outside. Today, it’s still not *cold* like it is during most of the winter, but its clearly not warm outside either. For folks from the Pacific Northwest, this is still bizarre weather for this time of year, but this is very normal for Mongolia. In fact, the year our son was born, we had snow a couple of days later–in May!

The upshot of having snow (or any kind of precipitation) is that it cleans the air, and we are relishing the fresh air coming in through our open windows. The radiators are still pushing out a lot of heat even with the throttles low, and it is quite pleasant to counter that with cooler outside air. In general, the warmer weather (today being an exception), the winter air pollution has significantly reduced, meaning we’ve been having open windows most days.

It is exciting to see green returning to the trees and the first signs of grass coming up. The seasonal changes are always welcome after the loooooong winter months. However, being spring, we’ve traded coal smoke for dust storms and tree pollen. You win some; you lose some. Thankful for antihistamines and air purifiers indoors!